dames) hated the children of her husband by his other wives. It was thought that she had given poison to Aridæus, which, failing to take away his life, had much impaired both his body and wits. Now she considering that Eumenes was too full of business to come home so soon as she wished that he should, and that Cassander daily prevailed in Greece, thought it the best way to join with Polysperchon, and set up as king her nephew Alexander, the son of Roxana, removing Aridæus before Cassander were able to defend him. To this intent she procured men among her kindred in Epirus, and so took her way towards Polysperchon, who joining with her entered into Macedon.

Eurydice hearing these news, wrote very earnestly to Cassander, praying him to set aside all other business, and come to succour her. She herself, by entreaty, gifts, and promises, drew to her party as many of the Macedonians as she could, until she thought her own side strong enough; and then, taking her husband with her, went boldly forth against Olympias and the traitor Polysperchon.

These two queens met armed, as if the matter should have been determined by their own hands, which ended, without any stroke stricken, by the revolt of those who followed Eurydice. For as soon as the Macedonians beheld Olympias, calling to mind her former estate, and the victorious reigns of her husband and son, they refused to lift any weapon against her. Eurydice, finding herself thus forsaken, fled towards Amphipolis, but was intercepted and made prisoner with her husband.

Olympias, having obtained this victory without blood, thought that all things would succeed, as easily, and that upon the same considerations for which they had refused to bear arms against her, the Macedonians would not stick to maintain her, whatsoever her proceedings were. Having therefore shut up Aridæus and his wife in a close room, where they could scarce turn round, she fed them through a little hole, till after a while it came in her head (for fear lest the people should have commiseration of him that had reigned almost six years and a half) to put them to death.

So she delivered Aridæus to some barbarous Thracians, who took away his life by cruel torments: to Eurydice she sent a sword, a halter, and a cup of poison, willing her to choose the instrument of her own death, who, praying that the like presents might one day be sent to Olympias, yielded her neck to the halter, having spent her last curses not in vain. Nicanor the brother of Cassander, and a hundred the chief of his friends, did Olympias then choose out, all whom she commanded to be slain. His brother Iolaus, that was already dead and buried, she accused of poison given to Alexander; and thereupon caused his tomb to be thrown down, and his bones to be scattered abroad. The Macedonians, wondering at this fury, began to condemn themselves, and the folly of Polysperchon, who had, quite contrary to Antipater's charge given on his deathbed, called this outrageous woman to the government of the empire.

SECT. XX.

How Cassander was revenged upon Olympias.

§. I.

The great expedition of Cassander. Olympias shuts herself into Pydna, where Cassander besiegeth her. Eacides, king of Epirus, coming to succour Olympias, is forsaken, and banished by his own subjects.

CASSANDER at that time lay before Tegea, in Peloponnesus, whither, when all these ill tidings were brought to him, he never stayed to take the city, nor to give order for the state of things in that country, (though Alexander the son of Polysperchon were there with an army,) but compounding with them of Tegea, he willed his associates to look to themselves as well as they could till his return, and so in all haste he took his journey toward Macedon, carried headlong with the greedy desire of just revenge. The Ætolians had taken the straits of Thermopyla in favour of the queen and Polysperchon, to hinder his passage; but he, not willing to misspend any time in dealing with them, got together as many ships as he could, great and small, with which he transported his army into Thessaly. There he divided his

companies, appointing some under Callas, a subtle captain, to hold Polysperchon busied, who then lay encamped near to Perbæbia; with the rest he marched directly against Olympias. She, having once prevailed by the respect given to her dignity, took more care now to appear majestical, than to make herself strong. To this end she made a solemn progress to Pydna, a sea-town, and well fenced, having in her company all the flower of the court, especially the great ladies, among whom was Roxana, and her young son Alexander, heir to the great Alexander by his grandmother's designment; who, during his minority, kept the sovereign power in her own hands. But all this pomp served to little use against the violence of the enemy, that soon presented himself before the walls; only it fed the besieged with a vain hope of succour, that would from all parts arrive to rescue persons of their quality. And hereof there soon appeared fair likelihood, which as soon vanished, and went away in smoke.

For Eacides king of Epirus made great haste to bring succour to Olympias, his cousin, with whom Deodamia his daughter was also shut up. Nevertheless, his subjects were nothing forward in this expedition; but finding certain passages taken in the way by Cassander's men, they called upon him to retire, and quit the enterprise. The king's importunity, urging them to proceed, and the obstinate refusal of the army, brake out at length into such terms, that when he had raged in vain against the multitude, his authority, with which he thought to have prevailed upon them, was by them taken from him, and he compelled to forsake his kingdom, and to wander up and down in foreign countries, a banished man; his people joining with the enemy, against whom he had led them forth to war.

Pydna in the mean time was closed up straitly both by sea and land, so that neither any could issue out of the city, nor any relief be conveyed into it: but it held out as long as any food was left, no memorable service being done there, whilst great actions were managed abroad.

§. 2.

A continuation of Olympias's story. Polysperchon defeated. Extreme famine in Pydna. Olympias yields to Cassander.

NOW, though order of time require it, that we should rehearse the doings of Eumenes and Antigonus in this place, leaving Olympias yet a while to the hour of her destiny, which grows the faster upon her, because she her, because she may discern it coming; yet that we may not be compelled to interrupt the course of our narration, by inserting her tragedy in the midst of things not manifestly coherent with it, we will here (as elsewhere we have done, and elsewhere must) continue to an end one history, that we may not be therewith distracted when we shall come to the relation of another. All the hope of the besieged, remaining in Polysperchon, was in like manner disappointed as their former trust had been, which was reposed in the succours of the Epirot. For Callas, who was sent against him, found the means to corrupt the greatest part of his army with money, leaving him within a little while so slenderly accompanied, that he was fit for no other business of war than a swift retreat. When famine had so far prevailed in the city that the horses were killed as a precious food, many men feeding on the dead carcasses of their fellows, and sawdust being given to the elephants for provender, some of the soldiers, obtaining the queen's leave, (who could not deny it,) others, without asking leave, yielded themselves to the enemy, and were by him gently relieved, and sent abroad into the country. The news of the queen's affairs, dispersed by these men, did so affright her well-willers, that such as had reserved themselves to the event, came in apace, and submitted them to Cassander. At length, when the mortality was so great in the town, that the living were even poisoned with the noisome scent of the dead, Olympias bethought herself of stealing away by sea in a galley that she had; wherein her success was as bad as in the rest. For God had appointed this town, by her chosen as a place of refuge, to be unto her as a house of torment, and a gaol, out of which she should not be delivered,

but unto an evil death. Being therefore utterly broken with miseries, which daily afflicted her and the other ladies, unaccustomed to so wretched a kind of life, she offered composition; and with much labour hardly obtained of Cassander (who, having fetched her galley out of the haven, accounted himself as good as master of her body) a grant of her own life. Immediately upon her apprehension, Pella, the chief city of the kingdom, was yielded to Cassander. Amphipolis did stand out; for Aristonus, to whom Olympias had given charge of such forces as were left abroad in the country, taking courage from the success of some petty services wherein he had prevailed, began to promise himself great unlikelihoods. But Olympias, to win Cassander's favour, very earnestly required him upon his faith to her, that he should give it up. He did so, and presently after was killed by his private enemies, that were set on by Cassander, who partly hated him upon old respects, partly doubted him, as a man likely to seek innovation.

§. 3.

The death of Olympias, and her condition.

WHEN Olympias had now heard sorrowful tidings of all her friends, she herself was called into question, and accused in an assembly of the Macedonians for the murders (they were so styled in her affliction, which in time of prosperity she called justice) by her committed. There was she (being not heard, nor called to speak) condemned to die. The suit was commenced and prosecuted against her by the kindred of those whom she had slain. But it was at Cassander's instigation; who (to hasten the execution) sent her word that he would furnish her with a ship and other necessaries to save herself by flight: which when she refused, saying that she would plead for herself, and tell her own tale, he dissembled no longer, but sent unto her such men as hated her most, who took away her miserable life. She was daughter and sister unto two kings of Epirus, wife and mother unto two the mightiest kings of that or many